Most Wanted
by Elusive Nightingale
Summary: Two ancient bloodlines will cross. However, their elimination is inevitable. The world speaks of good, evil, and justice, but the lines can be blurred. The truth will be found. She swears it. MOVED FROM OLD ACCOUNT TO THIS ONE.
1. Chapter 1

The Moby Dick had docked in an island which was strange for them to do. WhiteBeard himself had insisted that they must dock here, even though they usually spent the majority of their time drifting in the wide ocean. It was in the middle of the night and they had been here waiting since morning. Everyone was getting fed up, however, WhiteBeard reassured them by telling them that they needed to have patience. Finally, they heard the sound of heels clicking on the cold, wet pier and they all fell silent. The woman who boarded their ship had dark hair styled into a fringe and wore a purple crop top that exposed much of her cleavage. This was paired with a mini-skirt that hung dangerously low on her waist and purple boots.

"Sorry, WhiteBeard, for being late. I had...business to attend to." the woman said as she ignored all the stares and headed towards WhiteBeard.

"Gurararararara! No need to be formal, Nico Robin. You're my daughter now. Welcome to the family." the gruff pirate captain said with a hearty laugh.

"Right." Robin responded while forcing a smile. "A family of good-for-nothings. I'll fit right in." Turning to the rest of the crew, she said sarcastically, "Pick your jaws off the floor and introduce yourselves. How rude."

"Oh! Sorry! My name is Portgas D. Ace and-" Ace began to say.

Poking her finger at his chest, Robin interrupted, "I know who you are, Flame-kun. I'm pretty sure everyone who hasn't been living under a rock knows who you are."

"Then perhaps you've heard of me, Marco The Phoenix!" the exuberant blond said enthusiastically. He utilized his abilities and flew around the ship in a stunning blue, fiery display, before landing in front of her.

Robin stared at him for quite some time while gathering her thoughts, and blinked a few times before clearing her throat and saying, "No, actually I don't know who you are. But that was a fine display." Seeing his defeated expression, Robin giggled, "It was a joke."

"Aren't you gonna tell us what you're wanted for? I mean, for pops to take you under his wing, you have to be in deep trouble with Government." Teach asked. Robin's playful expression vanished and her eyes darkened. She didn't like this guy's aura; something just didn't sit right with her. Robin ultimately decided to not answer that question. She fixed her gaze onto him and eventually said, "Oh? Don't you want to pose that question a little differently? You might hurt my feelings."

"I apologize if I went too far, but as nakama we should know more about our crew mates." Teach replied. "Especially on this ship. We're family. If you think we're gonna turn you in to the Marines, you've got another thing coming. I understand if you're distrusting of us, but give us a chance."

Robin's eyes were obscured from view her hat as she said, "Try trusting people when you've been betrayed your whole life." And with that, she walked as far away from the crew as she could and went to one of the side railings. She forced herself to block out all thoughts from her past and focus on the calm ocean, but to no avail. Robin couldn't do that, the memories were too vivid as if they happened yesterday. What she was thinking when she decided to join this crew, Robin had no clue. Everyone on this ship was so-

"Hey." Ace said interrupting her thoughts. "Sorry if Teach was being too direct and I-"

"Oh?" Robin said as a smile slowly appeared on her lips. "Flame-kun came to check on me? How kind of you. But, I'm alright, however, I would keep an eye on that Teach character. There's a reason why I didn't tell him my past, you know."

"Huh? Why not?" Ace asked with a perplexed expression.

"Because I don't want to be the target of one of his dastardly plans. He might just turn in one of his own crew mates to the Government to achieve his goals and I don't want to be that person. He'd most likely go after the person with great notoriety or a great bounty. I'd be wary around that one if I were you, Ace." Robin answered using his actual name for the first time.

"Zehahahahaha!" Teach laughed while approaching the two. "Already warming up to our new lady friend, eh Ace? She is quite the looker."

"What?! It's not like that! I was only showing proper manners to a fellow crewmate!" Ace protested.

"So," Teach said to Robin. "When are you gonna tell us about your past?"

The dark-haired archaeologist shot him an annoyed look and replied, "I'd rather not. Besides, it's getting late. I'm going to sleep pretty soon anyways. That reminds me, where is my room?"

"You're under the 2nd Division along with Teach. I'm the commander of that division, so I'll show you where it is." Ace said.

"Sounds good to me." Robin replied.

The next morning, The WhiteBeard Pirates had finally set sail and were leaving the island. Everyone was out on the deck save for Robin who was exploring their massive library.

"Well, let's not waste time." WhiteBeard started. "We all know that Robin doesn't trust us. But she has a soft spot for Ace. I wonder why."

"Maybe we could throw her a welcoming party. That'll get her to open up." Thatch suggested. "Nobody's ever turned my food down."

"Um..how are we gonna set up a party while she's on the ship? Isn't it supposed to be a surprise?" Ace asked.

"Returning to what pops said, the answer is plain and simple." Marco said. "You'll just have to keep her busy."

"Keep who busy?" Robin asked as she left the library and walked unto the deck. She searched the crowd for answers, but they all seemingly went about their business as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on. Sighing, she was about to go back inside until she heard someone yell her name.

"Robin!" Ace called. "Want to see something cool?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"Great!" he said while grabbing her hand and leading her away from the crew. As they were walking away from them, Ace could have sworn he heard snickering and giggling. He tried to ignore it until Robin said, "You don't have to hold my hand."

Ace immediately dropped her hand and apologized, but Robin grabbed his hand again and said, "I was kidding. Your hand is very warm, Ace."

He widened his eyes in shock and turned around to look at her. Onyx eyes met dark-blue eyes and for a moment, it got very awkward. Robin's face was the first to turn a bit pink and she averted her eyes from his gaze. They stood there in that inconvenient situation for a few minutes until Robin broke the silence.

"Sorry." She mumbled and dropped his hand, while retreating back into the library. Once inside the warm confines of the library, Robin placed her hand on her chest to feel her pulsating heart. It was beating fast and Robin could guess why. However, she squashed the idea as soon as it surfaced and thought, I only joined this crew for protection from the World Government and to continue my research. This is merely a stepping stone that will get me closer to the Poneglyphs. So why am I..?

Robin decided to distract herself from her thoughts and began to search the shelves for a book to read. Her slender fingers stopped on a book that was titled, D. She was immediately reminded of the kind giant who was her only friend on Ohara and of a certain 'D' who was the commander of the 2nd division. Intrigued, she took it off the shelf and examined the cover. It was extremely worn out and the leather covering threatened to turn to dust if it wasn't handled gently. The D on the front cover was inscribed with beautiful gold lettering as well as the author's name. Robin almost dropped the book as if it was hot to the touch once she read the author's name, Nico Olvia.

"Hey, why'd you run away from me?"

Robin turned around abruptly and said to Ace, "Why? Because it was embarrassing."

"How?" Ace asked.

"Are you that dense?" Robin asked playfully as she rapped his forehead with her knuckles. "We were holding hands. Since I am the only female here, it doesn't get much more awkward than that."

"Yeah. You're probably right about that one." Ace agreed. Noticing the book in her hand, he asked, "What's that?"

"It's a book." Robin said sarcastically. "Haven't you ever seen one? I hear they have lots of information."

"No, I mean, what's it about?"

Opening the book, Robin read the first paragraph to him. "A lost kingdom. One that was desecrated by the rival kingdom of the people that now call themselves the World Nobles. Yes, the lost kingdom belonged to the D's, a benevolent people who were quite powerful. I have also found out that Ohara was a neighboring kingdom that seldom got itself into foreign affairs. Hence, it was not destroyed during that time. I am taking a great risk by writing this;I hope it will reach the hands of my daughter. Possessing such information will get me executed without a doubt, so I am placing this under the care of Edward Newgate. Until it reaches my beloved daughter, Nico Robin."

"So you are a descendant of royals, Ace. And so am I. But my question is why the World Government wants to hide that fact." Robin mused.

"Maybe they feared our power." Ace suggested.

"That's true! We're onto something." Robin exclaimed as she took a step closer to him.

"They knew that if they didn't take care of us, we would be dangerous to their society." Ace said as he took a step closer to her.

They kept saying different theories about the idea while getting close to each other until their noses were touching. Neither of them said a word, and simply stared at one another. Suddenly, they heard a loud crash as WhiteBeard burst into the library yelling, "Now kiss!" He used the power of the Gura Gura no mi to slam Robin into Ace, so that their lips locked and sent them plummeting to the ground. Ace was surprised at how soft her lips were and was a bit disappointed when she got up as soon as they hit the ground.

"WhiteBeard?!" Robin said in disbelief. "What was that about?"

"I'm only helping you two. You're just two snot-nosed brats who don't know the first thing about love." WhiteBeard answered.

"Love...? How does that apply to anything? We were researching and found this book that my mother wrote about the lost kingdoms. That's all."

"So you found it, eh? You really are Olvia's girl." WhiteBeard said. He then turned to Ace and said, "She's a catch alright. Aren't you glad she's in your division?"

"Yeah. That kiss was pretty nice." Ace said with a grin.

Robin's face turned red as she mumbled, "Whatever."

"Gurarararara! Ace, look, you can turn this femme fatale into a shy schoolgirl! Gurarararara! How interesting!"

"I'm not a shy schoolgirl. And I'll prove it." Robin said as she slid her fingers around Ace's neck to bring his face towards hers and kissed him until she felt that she had no more oxygen left and broke the kiss. "How was that?" Robin asked in a sultry voice.

"I'd like another one." Ace flirted.

"Too bad. I've got research to do." Robin said as she pushed him away and picked up 'D'. As she walked out of the library, she turned around and winked at Ace, not knowing that Teach was in the library too and had watched the whole thing. He was angry that they had kissed twice and that WhiteBeard openly supported their relationship. He promised himself that he would get revenge as he seethed.


	2. Chapter 2

Later that night, Robin noticed that the ship had become eerily quiet, which was odd of the WhiteBeard pirates. She set down the book she was reading onto her nightstand and proceeded to take off her pajamas to put on her regular clothes. She chose a little, purple dress that was long-sleeved and stopped at mid-thigh. She paired this with lacy pantyhose and black boots that went to her knees. She left her room and walked towards Ace's room. She knocked on the door, only to receive no response. Confused, Robin slowly opened the door and looked at his bed. Empty.

"Ace?" Robin said to make sure he wasn't in his room. Still no response. She started to become very worried and opened every single bedroom door in the 2nd Division's quarters, hoping that she would find someone. But to no avail, everyone had seemed to have disappeared. She ran onto the deck to look for them, and she did indeed find them.

"Surprise!" The entire crew yelled as confetti blew everywhere and lights were turned on. "Welcome to the family, Nico Robin!"

Robin was at a lost for words. Tables were set up with food decorating them, music was playing, and everything you could expect at a pirate party was there. Not used to being the center of attention, Robin looked for someone who she was mildly comfortable with, Ace. Spotting him in the crowd, she ran towards him and threw her arms around him.

"Thank you! I can't believe you guys would do this for me! I love..." Robin's voice trailed off when she realized he was sleeping. Noticing her bewilderment. Thatch quickly intervened and said, "He does that sometimes. It's completely natural. Although, now we can't tell when he's faking it or not."

"Okay..." Robin said.

Ace suddenly got up and asked Robin, "Care to finish what you were saying? The part where you said, 'I love...' Whose name was gonna come after that?"

He grinned even bigger when he saw that that question obviously embarrassed her. She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed, "I was going to say I love you guys."

"Aww. I was hoping for something better than that." Ace replied as he continued to stuff his face.

"Hey, Robin." Marco said as he approached her. "You've hardly eaten anything and it's a party to celebrate you. Loosen up a bit."

"Sorry, I've had a lot on my mind..." Robin mused as the thought of her mother crossed her mind. Ace and Marco began to talk to each other and to Robin, but she kept nodding her head in response to them without at least giving them a 'yes' or 'no'. Finally, she made her decision.

"As much as I'd love to chat with you gentlemen, I have to see WhiteBeard about something. So I'll see you guys later."

Ace and Marco looked at her and raised one eyebrow in confusion as she started to head towards WhiteBeard. The pirate captain saw her as she walked to him and stared at her piercing, blue eyes that showed her determination to speak with him. Obviously, she wanted to talk about something important, but she was the reason they had a party in the first place. She didn't even seem to have been enjoying herself.

"WhiteBeard. We need to talk." Robin demanded.

"Call me Pops or Dad. I am your father now." WhiteBeard said as he placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Actually, you haven't been enjoying yourself at this party have you?"

"No." Robin answered. "Which is part of what I wanted to talk to you about. I'd rather be out in the field researching about this."

She pulled the book that Nico Olvia wrote to her out of a bag she had been carrying around and continued, "I've read this book and it has astounding information, but there are holes in the history. Things that my mother never discovered. I want to discover them and finish what she started. Its my duty as an Oharan."

"That book is dangerous, you know. If the government finds out you have this-" WhiteBeard started.

"If the government finds out?" Robin interrupted. "My mother had this book for years until she turned it over to you. She was never executed and the government probably doesn't know about this. She kept it a secret."

"Follow me into my quarters. I'll tell you everything you need to know." WhiteBeard finally relented.

In the kitchen, Thatch was busy getting more plates, food, and drinks for the party. Glancing over at the Devil Fruit he found recently, he wondered whether or not he should eat it. He didn't know what abilities it would give him, so he decided against it. He turned his back away from the door to grab it and show it to WhiteBeard, when he felt cold, metal penetrate his chest. Luckily, the knife had missed his heart and lungs, but it was still a serious wound. If he lost too much blood, he would die. He almost managed to scream for help, however, a coarse hand clasped over his mouth.

"Zehahaha...so you had the Yami Yami no mi, eh Thatch? You knew I wanted it, why didn't you give it to me?" Teach chuckled darkly. He dropped Thatch to the ground of the kitchen and the impact of his body against the tile was nearly silent. In an attempt to grab the fruit and dash from the scene, he knocked over some pots and plates, which made quite the racket and would no doubt raise the crew's attention. He saw the door slowly creep open and closed his eyes tightly, praying it wasn't WhiteBeard.

Hearing a loud crash in the kitchen, Robin told WhiteBeard that she would be right back and she needed to go check out what happened. Seeing Ace, Marco, and Jozu heading to the scene, she quickened her pace. Once she was at the kitchen door, she opened it slowly and called out gently, "Thatch?"

"R-Robin? Help me..." a weak voice responded. She rushed into the room and turned on the lights only to see their cook lying in a pool of blood with a note attached to his sleeve.

"Thatch!" Ace, Marco, Jozu, and Robin exclaimed in unison. Robin knelt next to the wounded man without any care that she was in the puddle of blood and flipped him over so she could examine the damage. The blood had soaked through his shirt and turned the once, white chef shirt into a menacing red. His face was getting pale and his hair was matted with blood from laying in it.

"I may not be a professional doctor, but you're going to be okay. Living on your own since childhood teaches you something." Robin reassured him while stroking his face. "Ace! Get me any healing supplies you have! Marco! Alert everyone! Jozu! Help me carry him to a sanitary area!" She barked.

Everyone rushed to get their orders complete, because none of them wanted to let one of their best friends die. No one was prepared to face that reality. Jozu and Robin managed to get him to a clean, sterile room that used to be their old doctor room. They stopped employing medics because they got too powerful and no one ever needed medical attention. Placing him on one of the cots, Robin took off his shirt and grabbed some rubbing alcohol to get rid of germs. Just in time, Ace rushed in with the supplies she needed and Robin got straight to work.

After several hours of treatment, everyone was getting anxious. Robin did not let anyone into the room while she was working and nobody knew how Thatch was doing. However, Ace had figured out who the attacker was.

"Oi, there was a note attached to him. It says, 'Teach. I killed Thatch because of Robin. She dirties the WhiteBeard name.' " Ace read as his frown deepened with every word.

"So, what did she do?" Vista asked.

"Nothing! She barely joined. Teach is trying to make us go against her. He obviously killed him for the Devil Fruit." Ace said jumping to her defense. "Do you really believe that the same girl who is working tirelessly to save our comrade's life wants to hurt us in any way?"

"But Teach was a valued member of our crew! He would never do something like this unless it was warranted!" A crew member shouted.

"Yeah! Like you said, she just joined. We can't trust her, she won't even tell us why she joined. Doesn't that seem a little shady to you?" Someone in the crowd agreed.

"And she was especially rude to him, too!"

"Shut up! It isn't her fault! If you want someone to be mad at, be mad at Teach. He attempted to kill a fellow crew mate! That's high treason as pirate and he has to pay!" Ace snapped with his temper going through the roof.

Knowing his son would do something reckless, Whitebeard said, "Calm down, Ace. You don't know that Thatch has died."

Holding back his anger, Ace sat back down and waited for Robin to emerge with good news.

"I'm not...gonna make it...lost too much blood..." Thatch said barely above a whisper. He breathing was shallow and Robin was doing everything in her power to keep him alive.

"Shh..don't talk. You are going to live." Robin answered with a sweet smile on her face.

"A man knows when he's at his end, Robin. You can't fight fate."

"No. Your destiny is what you make it out to be. You will not die."

Robin waited for a response as she continued to treat him, but she got none. Looking at his face, she saw a tear escape from the corner of his eyes and a smile appear on his face as a thank you for her efforts. She quickly took his pulse and found no heartbeat. Her hand fell from his neck and dropped to her side. She was unable to save him. It was all her fault. Her own tears threatened to fall down her face, but she blinked them back and stood up from her chair at his bedside. Then she walked to the door and opened it to see all these hopeful faces waiting for good news. They stared at her. The words wouldn't form in her mouth and she just ran away crying. That's when they knew. Thatch had died.


	3. Chapter 3

The WhiteBeard Pirates just stared at Robin's running figure. They were too shocked to react to what happened. Robin kept running until Marco grabbed her shoulders and forced her to face him. He desperately searched her eyes for an answer, but could find none. He wanted to believe that she tried her best to save Thatch and that his death was a mere accident. However, he couldn't help but have his doubts. After all, he had just lost a good friend and comrade.

"He's alive right? You're crying because you're happy that he's alive, right, Robin?" Marco said.

Gaining her cool composure and stoic expression back, she replied, "No. He's dead." Her sudden change in attitude was shocking. She went from distraught to cool-headed within seconds. Sure, she hadn't known Thatch for more than a day, but some sort of regret and sadness should show. Robin had immediately put her stone-walls back up, a skill she had acquired from years of suffering. Never let emotions in or out. Do that, and nothing can hurt you again. It was a defense mechanism of sorts.

"That's all?!" Marco exclaimed. "That's all you have to say!"

Robin stared at him, her expression blank. Then, she slapped his hands away from her shoulders and said to everyone, "His body is still in the medical room. You guys can go see him if you want."

"Of course! And then we have to find an island to bury him." Jozu agreed. "His funeral will be a sad one, indeed."

"Robin. What happened in there, anyway?" Ace asked.

"He lost too much blood and he died. I tried to save him, but I failed." Robin said. "I'm sorry."

Ace strode towards her until they were shoulder to shoulder and he said evenly, "Sorry won't bring him back." Then he continued to walk past her and sat down on one of the tables for her party with a sigh. Everyone fell silent since they had no idea what to say in this situation. Everything was falling apart, thanks to Teach. Then, WhiteBeard spoke.

"Robin, I have a mission for you. One that I think you'll enjoy very much." WhiteBeard said. "And since I know that you have no intention of looking for a burial place and mourning with us, this will be perfect."

At this, Robin looked up and asked, "What is it?"

"You're going to Alabasta. I think that there might be a Poneglyph there and I also want you to investigate Baroque Works for me. Their leader is Crocodile-a brat who has been after my head for some time now. Find out what he's plotting."

"You got it. I'll be ready to leave at midnight."

"So soon?" Marco asked the raven-haired woman.

"What?" Robin replied while gaining her playful nature back. "Is someone going to miss me? I'm touched."

"Not at all!" Marco stammered. "It just seemed like you would need more time to pack."

"I don't have a lot of stuff, so I can leave early."

WhiteBeard began to give orders to wrap up Thatch's dead body in cloth and put him in a coffin. Robin purposely walked past Ace to go get her things to see if he would say anything to her. He didn't. How cold. Robin thought as she frowned. After experiencing the death of a friend, no one was in the mood to party. Let alone celebrate a woman who had let Thatch die. It wasn't her fault, yet they wanted someone to blame and they had too many fond memories about Teach to blame him. Even though he was the one who stabbed Thatch! Idiots. Robin thought.

After they had cleaned up, most of the crew went to bed weary from the events. Save for Robin who was waiting for that clock to strike midnight, so that she could go to Alabasta and find that Poneglyph. She was so excited since she hadn't seen one for a while. She even brushed up on her ancient text reading. However, she wasn't too thrilled that she would have investigate a secret organization as well. It was going to get in the way of her research.

"Hey, Robin."

She turned around to see none other than Portgas D. Ace standing there avoiding eye-contact with her and with his hands in his pocket. She stared at him before turning away to put her books in her rucksack. After she was done, she put it on and faced him once more.

"Well?" She asked.

"Are you really going to Alabasta?"

"Am I really going to pass up chance to see another Poneglyph?"

"I'm serious."

"I'm serious as well."

"Baroque Works is dangerous and you can't handle them alone." Ace insisted. "Someone should come with you."

"I'm not going to waltz in there and challenge everyone to a battle."

"If it did come to fighting, what would you do?"

"Listen Portgas. I'm more than capable of defending myself. You're not the only one with a Devil Fruit ability." Robin said with an annoyed look on her face.

"Crocodile is a Logia. Physical attacks aren't going to work." Ace replied. "Do you even have a way to get there?"

"WhiteBeard was going to supply me a ship, but-" Robin began.

"I just don't think that it is a good idea to go alone." Ace interrupted.

"Oh!" Robin said as she sat down and rested her chin on her hands. "Why don't you admit it, then? You want to come with me, am I right?"

"Well..." Ace began. "Yeah...but only because I thought Teach might be there."

"Then it's settled. Let's head to Alabasta!"


End file.
